Zoe has been lying in bed for the past two hours watching cartoons on TV. She feels so alone now that her mother is gone. She has superficial cuts on her face, and her arm has a deep cut from her elbow to the middle of her forearm. But what hurts the most is her heart. She barely remembers the accident. All she knows is that the other car approached them in the wrong direction. After that, she doesn't remember much, only waking up in the hospital and seeing her aunt sitting in the chair beside her bed.

After being told she is not needed at work, Kate heads to the hospital to see her niece. She reaches the pediatric floor and briefly walks to her niece's room. She pokes her head into the room and says hi to Zoe.

"Hello, Zoe."

She is still waiting for a response.

"I brought something for you to eat."

"I'm not hungry." She says without ever taking her eyes off the television.

Not to be discouraged, Kate takes off her coat and scarf, lays them on the chair where she puts the meal she prepared, walks over to the side of the bed, and takes a seat. This is a complicated conversation, and she doesn't know how to start it. So, she starts on a positive note.

"Zoe, they told me that you will be able to leave here on Friday. We need to talk about where you will live."

"Can't I go back home?" Zoe looks at Kate with hopeful eyes.

"I'm sorry, but you can't. "

"Why not?"

"Because you'd be alone there, and no one can care for you. Your mom asked me to take care of you. You will be coming home with me."

Kate looks down at Zoe, and all she does is nod her head and go back to watching cartoons on TV.


The cab pulls up outside Kate's apartment. Zoe looks up at the apartment building through the taxi window, unaware of where her aunt lives. She pulls on the door handle to open the door of the cab, grabs her bag with everything precious to her, and steps out. Kate quickly follows, and once Zoe gets to the curb, she steps up on the sidewalk and waits. Kate can sense that she doesn't want to be here. She takes her hand, and they both start for the stairs.

They climb the stairs to the third floor, and Kate opens the door and lets Zoe walk in. She places her keys in the bowl on the table by the door. Zoe looks at everything around her, taking it all in.

Deciding to help her out a little, she tells her the basic layout of the apartment.

"If you walk straight ahead, you'll see the kitchen. The living room is there." Kate says as she points to the room.

They walk further down the hallway and come to a bedroom.

"This is my bedroom. And this will be your bedroom." Kate says as she once again points to the room. She stands to one side of the doorway and pushes the door open. Zoe walks into the room and looks around.

"We can paint it any color you like and add things to it to make it more 'your' room." Zoe nods, walks to the bed, and drops her bag on the floor.


Today will be a hard day for both of them. She needs to tell Zoe that today, they will bury her mother. She knows what it's like to lose a mother. Christine and Kate lost their mother to cancer when they were younger. Christine was only 22. She was 28. It's not something that she will never forget, but as time goes on, the pain lessens each day. She knows what Zoe must be feeling because she's lived it firsthand. But she saw it coming in her instance, and she could cope a little better. Zoe lost her mother in a matter of an instant.


A few friends attended the funeral. No family was in attendance besides Kate and Zoe, and friends were scarce because Christine lived in Chicago. But the friends who did make the trip out, she is grateful for it because it shows Zoe that her mother was well loved. The casket sits atop the planks that keep it in place before being lowered into the ground. With a final last look at her mother's coffin, Zoe sniffles, then turns and walks away. Kate catches up and takes her hand, and together, they slowly leave the cemetery.


Logistically, it was a piece of cake. All Kate had to do was call the super at Christine's building and tell him that the movers would be there at 8:00 in the morning on Saturday to remove all of her personal belongings, furniture, and anything Zoe had in her room and bring them back to New York. While he was sad Christine had passed away, the super was happy that Zoe had her aunt to take care of her. He loved Zoe's energy and ability to see the best in everything.

Kate had been watching out the apartment window, waiting for the truck to arrive. The driver told her they would be today's first and only stop since the truck was all for them. When Zoe woke up about an hour and a half after Kate, she moved over to where Aunt sat at the window seat and looked out curiously. Just as she sat down next to her, the truck pulled up.

"Zoe, why don't you go and get dressed so we can see what's in the truck?"

"Okay." Zoe quickly leaves and finds something to wear. When she's dressed, there is a knock on the door.

The driver was a big, burly man who looked like he could have easily lifted five hundred pounds over his head. And then he said,

"We have a delivery for Beckett."

"That's us," Kate replied.

"And me too!" Zoe chimed in

"Very good. Do you have a freight elevator? I noticed you don't have an elevator in the lobby?" The driver asks.

"We do have a freight elevator in the back of the building. You could bring the larger furniture towards the back and use that." Kate tells him.

"Thank you. We'll get to work then." The man turns back to the stairway and descends back into the lobby. Before long, two other men are bringing smaller boxes up the stairs.

After about an hour, Kate decides to take Zoe outside so they can help with the smaller boxes. When they get to the sidewalk, they bring in kitchen appliances such as the microwave assorted appliances, which she has no idea where she will find room for, and then she has Christine's heirloom silverware. That will be stored for later. Zoe steps off the curb into the street and looks into the back of the truck they're unloading. In a short amount of time, the smile on her face is priceless. Kate looks in to see what she is looking at, and a stuffed giraffe is on the floor with its head sticking out of a box.

"Her name is Nelly. I've had her since I was three, and she keeps watch over me when I sleep."

As Zoe explains most of her toys, Kate looks on as they walk towards the front door. By the time they get upstairs, she knows all about most of her childhood toys.

By the time the truck leaves later that evening, most of Zoe's belongings and the contents of Christine's house are either in storage or in Kate's apartment.

She's becoming very concerned. Everything that Kate makes for dinner Zoe stares at and eats nothing. It's not that she doesn't like her food. It's the fact that she can tell she's homesick or she misses her mother's cooking. Something has to change, and soon.


Tonight, for dinner, she decides on trout almondine. It took her over an hour and a half to prepare it, and when she called Zoe for dinner, she came out and sat at the table. Kate takes the plate from the counter in the kitchen and places it in front of her on the table. All her niece does is stare at what sits on the plate.

Zoe looks at what is sitting on the plate in front of her. All she sees is half of a trout with an eye staring at her. Trout is different from what she wants to eat for dinner. So all she can do is stare at it, hoping it will magically turn into something like mac and cheese or chicken fingers with tater tots or something more appealing than a dead fish.

"Can I go back to my room?" Zoe asks as she pushes away the plate in front of her.

Kate doesn't know what to do. She feels as if she's doing everything wrong. She's never raised a child, so she doesn't know what to do. So she does the only thing she knows.

"Sure. But if you get hungry, Zoe, just come and find me. I will make you something to eat."

"Alright."

Kate watches as Zoe leaves the table and heads back to her room.


It had been over a week since Kate started taking care of Zoe. If she was honest with herself, she missed her kitchen. Not the one in her apartment but the one at the restaurant. She wasn't thinking of a parent when she walked into Zoe's room and told her,

"Zoe, I have to go to the restaurant. Do you think you'll be all right by yourself for an hour or two?"

All Zoe did was not her head in the affirmative. And then she went back to playing with her doll.

Kate didn't have a problem leaving her alone, but a thought was niggling in her mind that she really shouldn't. But her current curiosity won out, and she put on her coat and scarf and headed to the restaurant.


Paula had been surprised at tonight's number of reservations on the books. For the first time since COVID broke out, she had a full house. She had just seated the Millers and was heading back toward the maitre D's podium when she caught out of the corner of her eye the black beret that she knew all too well.

She watched as Kate pulled the door open, removed her scarf, and nodded to her. She was followed by another couple arriving for their 7:00 reservation.

She knew that once she reached the kitchen, Kate would be livid. She tried to seat the Burns party as quickly as possible to intercept her before she hit the kitchen. She didn't make it in time.

As she approached the kitchen, the music and laughter were deafening. She never played music in her kitchen. Bernadette comes through the door with two orders, and Kate lets her pass. She pushes open the door and sees a man about six feet tall with sandy brown hair holding a spoon in one hand and a game hen in the other. His back is toward her, and he is singing with the radio hidden in the kitchen. It wouldn't be that bad, but it's opera! If it's the one thing she abors the most, it's opera music.

Leah is the first to spot Kate, and when she does, the smile that she is wearing quickly fades away. The new man in her kitchen looks at Leah with a questioning look. It isn't until he hears Leah say,

"Hello, chef." he turns toward the door and stares at Kate. He's at a loss for words but finds his voice.

"Oh, my God! It's you."

The man walks around his prep table and heads directly for Kate.

"I am begging you, will you please tell me the secret of your saffron sauce?" He asks as he shakes his hand at her, who is still holding the game hen.

"Excuse me?" Kate says.

Without warning, the crazy man turned and returned to his prep table. Kate watches as he holds both hands in the air, one still clutching the game man, and starts singing along with the opera music on the radio. If that's not bad enough, he gets all the other kitchen staff singing along with him. Then, what throws her is when he bends over and starts singing to Leah's stomach.

Kate looks on as he makes a fool of himself by singing to the radio. By now, the whole kitchen staff is singing along with him, and she can't believe this is her kitchen from a week ago. The song ends, and Leah tells everyone to get back to work.

Kate looks at him as he finally turns back towards her and asks,

"Who do you think you are?"

It's like Kate took the wind from his sails. Both his hands come down to his sides, and he stands there staring at her before he answers.

"Rick Castle. And may I say the world would be dark and depressing without your quail in truffle sauce."

Kate turns to Paula and says,

"We need to talk."

She knew she was taking a risk, but even still, she would have done what she did all over again. She would make sure that Kate understood her position, and then they both walked out of the kitchen and into Kate's office.